I really wish I had a five speed but often I'll manually shift. At a light I'll put the shifter into 1 then shift to 2 at around 6000-6100RPM, then shift to 3 "D", and when I'm around 25-35MPH in 3 "D" I'll sometimes downshift to 2 to pass or just to accelerate, I've been consistently doing this for a few days now I mean the shifts are all fine, but instead of the computer guiding the shifts I am. Any feedback?

 

What year is your car? I have a 5-speed. It seems to me that if you are in drive (3rd) and you're only going 25-35 mph that the rpm get up awfully fast in 1st. How fast are you going in 1st gear before you shift?

I haven't driven an automatic in years. I don't see anything wrong with manually shifting. However, I question the need to downshift in automatic unless you are going down a hill. Downshifting in that case would slow the vehicle down and provide less wear and tear on the brakes.

I constantly downshift with my 5-speed and have the original brakes, which are in great condition and won't have to be replaced for some time to come.

I may be wrong about downshifting on the flat roads, but you don't want to put too much stress on the transmission bands from what I can remember.

 

i do nto think it wll harm anything....they would not let you do it if you were going to mess it up real bad.

when i am driving the 2001 it is an auto and if i am doing well over tehspped limit i shift into second, and it brings my car down to a good speed and then shifts it. so you could be doing 100 and if you shift into second it will slow your car down until you can it can saftly shift.

i do not find shifting that way any faster though cause it takes your reaction time and the transmissions reaction time into acount, if it is just auto shifting by itself it does it at it own time which i think is faster.

 

Any car enthusiast would want a stick shift over an auto; they gut it out even though they've got a lot of daily stop and go traffic. And besides, a stick will lay waste to an auto at the track, stock for stock. Answer the question or don't post at all.

HarrisH, I do the same when I'm especially lamenting my ownership of an auto and have yet to experience any problems. Granted, I'm only doing it once or twice a week but as rmudoch and ManualMaxima have pointed out, you probably wouldn't be able to do it if it were to cause serious damage to your car. Just don't do any high RPM neutral dumps

~THT

 

i've been manually shifting my auto for almost 3 months now with no problems. whenever i downshift to second though, i make sure i'm just a bit above 40mph or below it. i have made mistakes though and spun tire in first forgeting that i wasn't in drive and took it into redline for a second...not good.

 

ahh i love it.. thrs lots of love on this thread. i have a stick and to be honest i love it to death but its hard to be feeling up on a girl or getting some head while your driving if every so often you have to shift. ut for the question that was asked i think its ok depending on at kinda auto tranny you have. i remember reading a while back that some are ecu controled and other maybe controled by pressure of hydraulics of some sort and those ones that are ecu controled would not down shift until the right rpms. but i think u should do it only it u have the moeny to get it fixed it it breaks.

 

Manual is a beautiful thing but im not going to bash on anyone that doesnt like it. It just a matter of taste. Some of us like being able to control the car 100% and others couldnt care less and thats cool.
I do however think the "ballers" comment is funny as hell! That has nothing to do with anything... do you even know what it really means??? Or maybe its all the light reflecting off that dumb *** chrome thats frying your mind.

 

Hey guys. I'm in an 96 auto with 150k. I've been manually shifting my auto for two years/40k. I have not any problems with my tranny. It still shifts beautifully and smoothly when I leave it in D.

Mind you... revving to 5000rpm in N and dropping it in D will literally kill your tranny.

I manual shift all gears when I get a chance, mainly for better response. Like when I'm about to pass, I'll shift to a lower gear and wait for the traffic to clear and then I get on it. Or, I'll drop to a lower gear for engine braking.

I just feel that sometimes the tranny computer doesn't react the way I would prefer. Like when I give it a little gas going 35ish... the tranny is in OverDrive so there's just not enough power to accelerate the way I want... So then I give it a little more gas and then the thing jumps to a lower gear and jerks my head back. I'm like... what??? I don't like that. I'd rather have my tranny in a lower gear from the start to avoid the jerking...

Anyway. I think a 5 spd is awesome, but an auto clearly has it's advantages. It's kind of difficult to make a decision on our Maxima's. If it were a van or even if it was like a Camry, I'd take an auto. But the VQ being so pleasing to rev, I guess a 5spd would be awesome. Then again... it's front wheel drive... so... may not even be worth it. Eh... I dunno. I'm pleased with the VQ. Don't really care about the tranny anymore.

 

This is what ive seen with messing with autos. My boy had a 2000 4.0L wrangler and he would do the same thing, also neutral dropping it at 4 grand. He blew 2 trannys. My other boy had a V6 accord and he would do the same. His didnt blow but would slip from time to time. I dont think it would be wise to push the grears in the tranny like you would if it were a 5-speed. The last thing anyone would want is a blown tranny.

 

it probbely weas not the shifting that messed it up...it was the nuetral drops. we did htis in my friend cirrus and his transmission blew...

 

i've been pushing my auto to the max for about 2 years now manual shifting it many times a day 7 days a week about the only thing that is wrong is my one trans mount is loose and needs to be replaced sometime in the near future other then that the auto hold up without a problem i also do not like the computer controled gear shifts at 40 and 80 if you want to accelerate fast it has a REAL bad dilay unless you do it your self IE at 40 down shift to 2 and at 80 turn OD off and i found a little trick when going 80+ when WOT turn OD OFF and ON rapidly about 4 time and your last time leaving it off and you jump about 1000k helping you get into the powerband faster

 

Downshifting an auto is BAD. Also what the guy above said is stupid too. Why would you downshift and upshift the car over and over, just to **** it up?

 

bIg D is right thats how i ****ed up my auto by down shifting, d1 and 2 are for hills and icey roads not to pretend like its stick shift. DON T DO IT too much pressure build up on the torq converter you will **** YA **** UP

 

if this is the case then what is the difference between doing what i do and the 5th and 6th gen 5 speed autos with manual override???

 

Wait a minute say you're going 35MPH you go WOT your car automatically downshifts into SECOND revs Second to 6200RPMS then upshifts to 3rd, where as if you move the shifter into 2 from D the RPMS go from 3000 to about 4500 or so. So how can that damage the tranny, you're controlling the shifts rather than the computer. Correct me if I'm wrong. Again thanks for the feedback.

 

and if your going 20 and hit WOT it down shifts to first redlines goes to 2nd red lines then goes to 3 and if you red line that your going 140 you better know how to drive at that point then you flatten out at 145 if you almost stock anyway

 

if what i do messes up the car then i must have one HELL of a car to hold up without a problem for 2 YEARS of constently doing it

 

a little off topic, but
does constant down shifting a manual tranny, to save the brakes, cause any stress/wear and tear on the synchros?

 

I do it all the time and have in every standard transmission car I've ever owned and there have been several of them. I've never once had a problem. Just make sure you don' get the revs to high in the gear you downshift to. When I drive in the city I sometimes just take my foot off the gas and let the car slow down on its own somewhat and then downshift.

 

heel and toeing is a good thing... very very very good..... if youre gonna downshift, I hope you're heel and toeing... or at least some form of rev/speed matching.....and about "manumaticing" a max.... if you dont beast the **** like its not supposed to be.. its fine.. I did it in my old legend for about 2 years, and my friend has done it in his max for a hella long time, and he has the "drop resistor" mod, so its a rough shift, but it holds up perfectly, and he sure as hell beasts it!

 

You might feel like your a bit faster upshifting. But I wouldnt bother to do it. Its all in your head. I remember when I first upshifted while racing, I thought the car seemed lighter and faster. But it wasnt (this proved true when I took it to the track) Now that I have my VBMOD it seems to keep me satisfied (5spd guys, your getting a new 5spd memeber in about a month in a half) Anyhow, you'll feel you car alot quicker and faster, if you go and borrow your moms 96 Geo Tracker. Drive it all day, then get in the max you'll appericate the car alot more. Oh and for the comment about getting some action in the car, as much as I love it, and alot of the guys in the forum do too. I'd rather have a faster car to get me to the house quicker to do my thing, than driving around . Getting some head and feeling up a girl while driving is a MAJOR NO NO.....I think it was in playboy they said 35% of accidents cause by men, where because of some sort of sexual conduct, with a women, themselves, or other.....

 

yea you should be focusing on driving rather than that other stuff wait till you get home.....that is just stupid.

you are risking the life of you your car and your bitach!

 

 

I agree that upshifting is not any faster. The reason I manushift is for better gear selection.

I just think that when the engineer's first designed the auto tranny, they wanted it to be simple. I don't think they actually thought that people would want to maunally shift their automatics. They probably thought all the gear heads would buy standard transmissions instead. However, lately, autoshifting has become accepted and now newer cars are developed with that in mind, hence their manual override.

I do not believe that manually shifting an auto will harm your transmission. All that is being changed is that now the driver selects the gears and not the tranny ecu. The transmission is still doing the same job regardless of who or what's selecting its gears.

But if you're not comfortable, then don't. It really doesn't matter. There is no wrong or right here... just preference.

As for me, I'm laying off of manushifting these days so I can acheive optimum mpg.

 

manualmax... yea your right. neutral drops are stupid and will kill the tranny. At the same time, think about this, in a manual you can downshift to a lower gear if you want to slow down, get more power etc. Ever notice the speed vs. rpm in your car compared to an auto? I just think that if you dump it in 2nd in an auto if your going too fast, you can mess up the tranny. Most of the time the only way you can drop it down a gear in an auto is by pressing the brake. They made it that way for a reason i think. In most cars that dont have an OD button, you can move the stick from 4th to 3rd without the brake but not 2nd. Just a thought

 

You won't be any faster, you may be slower, and you could possibly hose your transmission if you're screwing around. Don't do it. Next time, buy a 5 speed.

 

Not another one of these threads. I didn't read it all but I think: 1. Upshifting is pointless. 2. Downshifting is not pointless and you cannot harm your tranny doing it. For those of you that blew your tranny downshifting I think there were other circumstances factoring. The fact is that if the pressure or RPM is too hight the TCM will not execute the shift. Don't get me wrong. I don't like the auto but downshifting does eliminate the lag when you gotta go. In traffic it helps a lot. Again, don't get me wrong. I hate the auto so much that it will be sitting on the curb in several months. In place will be a short shifted LSD with ACT Stage 1.